15 Practical Gift Ideas for New Parents

From a poppable pacifier to a monitor that teaches a newborn to sleep, here are 15 gifts to make this amazing job just a little easier. Make no mistake, parents: We love technology, but we don’t need robots to play with or care for our kids. That’s the fun part. There are so many innovative solutions to make the gross, grueling parts of this amazing, fulfilling, nothing-like-it, etc. job just a little easier than it was before. We have 15 of them for you here. Looking for other ideas? Check out our many other buying guides.Note: When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works.

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Innobaby

Silicone Bath Fish

Price$10

Oh, the horror—the horror!—of cutting open a child’s little rubber bath toy and finding a nest of black mold within! These soft, silicone bath scrubbers are much softer than they look and come in adorable fish shapes. New parents will never buy another tiny, ineffectual wash cloth or slimy rubber ball again.

Fridababy

The Snotsucker

Price$16

This adorable and delightfully disgusting nasal aspirator is approximately 15 zillion times more effective (rough estimate) than those ubiquitous blue rubber bulbs. Every parent needs a fast, effective way of giving their little disease vector some nasal relief.

Doddle & Co

Poppable Pacifier

Price$19

Babies throw and drop pacifiers all the time, but you can't exactly flick wet gravel off your child's binky and stick it back in their mouth. This silicone pacifier ingeniously pops back into a protective bubble when your child drops it, to keep their mouths sparkling clean and fresh (mostly). They are also dishwasher-safe and free from lead, PVC, BPA, and phthalates.

Skip Hop

Pronto Baby Changing Station

Price$22

With a portable changing station, every bag can be a diaper bag. Just slip it inside your favorite backpack or clip it onto your stroller handle. It holds just the right amount of diapers and wipes for an outing, and comes with a zip-off washable changing pad that you can rinse in the sink. You'll never have to lug an entire bag into a restaurant bathroom ever again.

mifold

Grab and Go Booster

Price$40

The last thing a parent wants to do while traveling is to lug a heavy, bulky booster seat in one hand and a squirmy toddler in the other. The Mifold booster slips into a backpack and meets all the federal motor vehicle safety standards. Designed for kids aged 4 and up, or over 40 pounds.

Huckberry

Rad Dad Tee

Price$29

Remind that exhausted new dad in your life that he's still a rock star with this 1980s-inspired tee from Huckberry. Not only is the shirt made from 100 percent U.S. grown cotton, it was also cut and sewn within 20 miles of Los Angeles. Even better, 100 percent of the profits go towards the Forever Young Foundation, which was started by football player Steve Young to provide children with educational, athletic, and therapeutic opportunities that they might not otherwise have access to.

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

The Gardener and the Carpenter

Price$18

New parents are bombarded with advice about everything. Rather than handing them another didactic how-to manual to raising Ivy League graduates, try psychologist Dr. Alison Gopnik's passionate examination of why children are better off when they're left well the hell alone. She compares "carpenter" parents—ones who believe they're making a person, like a carpenter makes a chair—versus "gardener" ones, who nourish a rose but don't believe they created it. Being a gardener sounds a lot easier to me.

Tula

Explore

Price$180

I've tried around a dozen different baby carriers with my two children. Tula is a cult favorite among parents for their stripped-down simplicity, light weight, adjustable sizes, and colorful prints. With a weight range of up to 45 pounds, my (almost) 4-year-old can still ride in one occasionally, which is nice. This summer, Tula released a new edition with an adjustable body panel that allows a baby to face forward, as long as they have head and neck control. Strap 'em in and sally forth.

Bluesmart

Mia

Price$80

Babies are such mercurial little tyrants. Sometimes they drink their bottle, sometimes they don't. Is it the right temperature? Did the babysitter tell you when she fed him the last time? The Bluesmart Mia is an ingenious sleeve that works on most transparent baby bottles. It automatically records the amount consumed, the temperature, the duration, and His or Her Majesty's preferred feeding angle. You can also now log everything else hands-free with the BlueSmart Alexa skill.

Medela

Medela Sonata

Price$350

No one ever said pumping breast milk is fun. But the task can be significantly less onerous with a quiet, small, discreet pump with a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth capabilities. Record pumping sessions wirelessly and carry the pump around if you forgot to get a drink. Keeping a second pump at the office will significantly reduce the amount of stuff a working new mom has to pack in the morning.

Beaba

Babycook

Price$150

A baby food maker is a luxury that the new parent might think they can skip, especially with critical grandparents shouting, "In my day, we mashed food with forks!" But from six months onward, the Babycook is your best friend. It's quick and easy to toss a few pieces of whatever you're cooking for the rest of the family into the Babycook. You can steam and mash with single servings or multiple ones, in an appliance that takes up very little room on the counter, saving time, money, and most importantly, energy.

Hatch Baby

Rest

Price$60

Toddlers don’t have clocks, and even if they did, they can’t tell time. How are they supposed to know that 5 a.m. is way, way too early for humans to be conscious? The simple, beautiful Hatch Baby Rest combines three necessary functions in one. It’s a night light, a sound machine, and a time-to-rise indicator, which parents can program from their phones. When the light turns green, it’s OK for the kid to wake up—at a decent hour, of course.

Nanit

Sleep System

Price$250

The Nanit monitor is the baby data collector that sleep-deprived parents long for. It automatically notes when your baby is asleep or awake, how often you check on them, and how long it takes them to fall asleep. It also has safety precautions that many other monitors don't. For example, it does not include two-way audio, making it a less appealing target for hackers. If you get a Nanit Insights subscription, it also gives you advice to help them sleep longer.

Veer

Cruiser

Price$600

Pumpkin picking, apple picking, going to the petting zoo... transporting the tots and all their stuff on picturesque outings can quickly become a logistical nightmare. Enter the Cruiser, a burly and endlessly adaptable wagon that can travel on the bumpiest dirt and gravel roads and be quickly adjusted for multiple children, toddlers, infants, dogs. It even has a mattress insert (for babies, not for you)!

Dosist

Holiday Calm Kit

Price$100

And finally, something that every new parent needs: An instant dose of tranquility. Each Dosist dose pen administers a precise amount of a safe, effective, and carefully crafted cannabis formula, that vibrates to alert you when you've had quite enough, thank you. Their Calm formula has a lot of CBD, a cannabis derivative that has been shown to have anti-anxiety properties. Unfortunately, you can currently only purchase it from selected retailers in California and Florida.